The Australian stock market is trading higher on Friday with investors following a fairly positive lead from Wall Street and picking up stocks. Bargain hunting after the previous session's sharp setback is also contributing to the surge.
Mirroring fairly widespread buying, all the sectoral indices are up in positive territory now. Financial, industrial, mining and energy stocks are mostly trading higher.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index is up 40.8 points or 0.9 percent at 4,520. The broader All Ordinaries index is up 38.3 points or 0.8 percent at 4,585.
On Thursday, the S&P/ASX 200 index declined 87.5 points or 1.9 percent to 4,479.2, while the All Ordinaries index ended down 88.7 points or 0.9 percent at 4,546.7.
Among bank stocks, ANZ Bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac are trading stronger by 0.8 to 1.2 percent. Bendigo & Adelaide Bank is up 0.5 percent, while Bank of Queensland is gaining about 1.6 percent.
Top miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto are up with modest gains, while Fortescue Metals is gaining 2 percent and Newcrest Mining is up 1.2 percent. Bluescope Steel and Incitec Pivot are up 4.8 percent and 2.2 percent respectively.
Energy stocks Woodside Petroleum, Oil Search and Origin Energy are up 0.4 to 1 percent. Santos and US-based Magellan Petroleum are reportedly fighting over a deposit that Magellan wants back after the sale of a stake in a gas field collapsed. Magellan was planning to buy a 40 percent working interest from Santos in the Evans Shoal gas field north of Darwin but was unable to satisfy conditions by a May 31 deadline. Magellan released a statement on Friday saying that it wanted the deposit it had paid back. Santos shares are up marginally at present.
QBE Insurance, Transfield Services, Challenger, Amcor and Leighton Holdings are up 2 to 2.6 percent. Goodman Fielder, Billabong International, James Hardie Industries, Fairfax Media and QR National are also up with strong gains.
Telstra Corporation Ltd shares are up nearly a percent. The company has announced that it has yet to consider or agree to the package of agreements it is negotiating with the federal government and the builder of the national broadband network.
In the currency market, the Australian dollar opened on a firm note and was quoting at US$1.0555 in early trades, up from Thursday's close of US$1.0535. The Australian dollar is currently trading at 1.0564 to the U.S. dollar.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea are trading modestly higher, while Shanghai and New Zealand are trading weak. Markets across the region ended mostly lower on Thursday.
On Wall Street, stocks ended on a mixed note on Thursday after showing considerably volatility following a mixed batch of economic data. The major averages bounced back and forth across the unchanged line before closing mixed.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq posted a modest loss on the day, falling by 7.8 points or 0.3 percent to a three-month closing low of 2,623.7, while the Dow rose 64.2 points or 0.5 percent to 11,961.5 and the S&P 500 edged up 2.2 points or 0.2 percent to 1,267.6.
Major European markets ended in the red on Thursday. The German DAX index edged down by 0.1 percent, while the French CAC 40 index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index lost 0.4 percent and 0.8 percent respectively.
Crude oil prices rebounded a bit on Thursday after the previous session's setback. Forecast for a surge in demand aided the rise. Light, sweet crude for July delivery ended up 14 cents at US$94.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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